Classic Hits

Tom Petty’s family has paid tribute to the rocker’s former Mudcrutch bandmate Tom Leadon, who passed away March 22 at the age of 71.

Sharing a collage of pictures featuring Petty, Leadon and the rest of the band, Petty’s daughter Adria Petty writes on Instagram, “We are devastated to hear of the passing of Tom Leadon. He was a dear friend of Tom and the fellas in the band and our entire family. He was part of the brotherhood. He was an excellent and accomplished musician and was the reason Tom reformed Mudcrutch, so that the band could enjoy more time and more music together. Tom loved him deeply.”

Petty’s wife, Dana Petty, added, “I am deeply saddened and surprised by this. Tom spent a lot of time staying in our home. He was very sweet with the best memory we’d ever witnessed. He was a unique man. I’m so shocked that he’s gone.”

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On This Day, March 29, 1980 …

AC/DC’s Malcolm Young called Brian Johnson, former singer of the band Geordie, and invited him to replace their late frontman, Bon Scott.

The band released their first album with Johnson, Back In Black, in July 1980. It went on to become one of the biggest albums in music history, selling more than 25 million copies in the U.S. alone, although it never reached number one in the U.S. It featured future AC/DC classics “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Hells Bells” and the title track.

Johnson, along with the rest of AC/DC, went on to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.  

He temporarily stepped away from the band in 2016 due to hearing problems, but rejoined the group in 2018 for their album Power Up, which was released in 2020.

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March 28 marked the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, and guitarist Jimmy Page marked the occasion by sharing a special treat with fans. 

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist shared an early demo he called “The Seasons,” which eventually became “The Rain Song.” He explained that the clip “was a memo to myself as a reminder of the sequence of the song and various ideas I’d had for it in its embryonic stage.”

The more than seven-minute “The Rain Song” was one of many classic tunes that appeared on Houses of the Holy. Others include “The Song Remains The Same” and “Dancing Days.”

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The Zombies are set to release their new album, Different Game, on Friday, but it may have been out earlier if the pandemic hadn’t gotten in the way. 

Lead singer Colin Blunstone says the making of the album was “an interesting adventure” for the band because they started working on it before the pandemic. While some artists made records over Zoom during lockdowns, that wasn’t what they were going for.

“We’d already decided that we wanted to record it with everyone in the studio at the same time,” Blunstone tells ABC Audio. “With the pandemic, it made it very, very difficult and so I think this album’s taken two or three years. To be quite honest, I’ve lost track of time.” 

Blunstone says it was important for the band to be together while recording, explaining, “We feel that there’s an energy in the studio when we’re all there playing together that isn’t there if we’re playing separately.”

He says he will “sing differently” when he’s in the studio with other musicians playing live, which gives a different feel to the record. He notes, “You can almost say this is very close to a live album but recorded in a studio environment.” 

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The Who’s new live album, The Who with Orchestra Live At Wembley, drops Friday, and they have shared one more track ahead of its release.

The latest is their live performance of “Eminence Front,” a song from their 1982 record It’s Hard, which features Pete Townshend on vocals. They’ve also shared a lyric video for the tune, which features some footage of the Wembley performance.

The Who with Orchestra Live At Wembley was recorded during the band’s July 6, 2019, headlining show at the famed London venue. The concert has them performing classic tunes from albums like Quadrophenia, Tommy, Who’s Next, Who Are You and more backed by a 50-piece orchestra.

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The Alarm is giving fans another taste of their upcoming album, Forwards. The band has released the third single from the record, “Whatever,” along with a video that was inspired by frontman Mike Peters’ second battle with cancer in 2022.

“I was inspired to write this song after hearing John Lennon sing ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’ on the hospital radio,” Peters tells The Big Takeover, which premiered the video. “I thought to myself, ‘Never mind the night … what am I going to do to get through life?’”

He adds, “The song ‘Whatever’ was born soon after and it’s really about the most simple, yet most important things like family, friends and loved ones who help you in the hours of need and an appreciation of life’s fundamental gifts such as being able to breathe, talk and to walk.” 

Forwards will be released June 2 on both CD and vinyl, with two vinyl options available, a classic green and white star white vinyl edition, plus a limited edition metallic green vinyl, available only at independent record stores. The album is available for preorder now.

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COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on Stevie Nicks’ solo tour.

After postponing two shows earlier this month, she’s now postponing two more “due to continued Covid illness within the band.” She has not revealed who in the band is dealing with the virus.

The latest shows affected include Thursday’s scheduled concert in Oklahoma City and Sunday’s show in New Orleans. Both concerts have already been rescheduled, with Oklahoma City moved to April 11 and New Orleans moved to April 15.

Stevie’s next scheduled concert is set for April 5 in Birmingham, Alabama, followed by a co-headlining date with Billy Joel in Arlington, Texas, on April 8. A complete list of dates can be found at stevienicksofficial.com.

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Elvis Costello will be working during his summer vacation. The singer and his band The Imposters, featuring Charlie Sexton, just announced the 23-date We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday tour, named after a line in his song “The Beat” from the 1978 album This Year’s Model.

The tour, featuring Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, kicks off June 7 in Vancouver, British Columbia, hitting such cities as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Nashville, Boston and New York before wrapping July 14 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, March 31. A complete list of dates can be found at elviscostello.com.

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On This Day, March 28, 1976 …

Phil Collins makes his U.S. live debut as Genesis’ lead singer on the band’s first tour since Peter Gabriel‘s departure.

Gabriel announced his departure from Genesis in August 1975, following the tour in support of their sixth studio album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The first tour without him was in support of The Trick of Tail, with Genesis performing across North America and Europe. 

Interestingly, on March 28, 1996, exactly 20 years after he made his live debut as frontman, Collins announced he too was leaving Genesis to focus on solo work and movie soundtracks.

That break lasted almost nine years, with Genesis launching a reunion tour in 2007.

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March 28 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin’s iconic album Houses of the Holy, the band’s fifth studio album and the first to not feature an eponymous title.

Houses of the Holy featured such Zeppelin classics as “The Song Remains the Same,” “The Rain Song” and “Dancing Days.” Interestingly, the record’s title track didn’t make the album and later appeared on 1975’s Physical Graffiti.

“The sound of it is so much more interesting than any other Zeppelin album because they had more time to play around with it,” Jason Hanley, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s VP of education and visitor engagement, tells ABC Audio about Houses of the Holy. “It was their moment to push those boundaries a little bit.”

Hanley notes that Zeppelin “always sort of diverted people’s expectations in a way.”

“If (1971’s) Led Zeppelin IV became the blueprint of what Zeppelin could sound like, Houses of the Holy is a different record and it takes it in a new direction,” Hanley says. “They just kept upping the ante each time.”

Houses of the Holy went on to be a huge success for Led Zeppelin and was certified Diamond by the RIAA for over 10 million albums sold. In addition, it has made several lists as one of the greatest albums of all time.

“This album was their moment to experiment, and have fun and do something different. And because of that it’s become one of the great iconic records of rock ‘n’ roll,” Hanley says.  

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